


The Reward

by Sarifel-Corrisafid-Ilxhel (Sarifel)



Category: Animorphs (TV), Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Alternate Ending, Book 54: The Beginning, Canon-Typical Animorphs Warnings, Canonical Character Death, Depression, Gen, Recovery, one or two curse words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:15:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25706497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarifel/pseuds/Sarifel-Corrisafid-Ilxhel
Summary: Tobias has vanished after Rachel's funeral. He's found a new meadow to call his own, and he's happy that way. No, really. He is. But maybe that's not what he's supposed to be doing after all.Alternate ending for Book 54, picking up after Rachel's funeral. Written for the Animorphs 2020 Minibang.Illustration for this story was drawn by the wonderful Ihasafandom and can be found here! https://archiveofourown.org/works/25643044
Comments: 18
Kudos: 41
Collections: Animorphs Mini Bang 2020





	1. Chapter 1

A large squirrel poked his head out from behind the tree and stared at me. He was watching me. Baiting me. Waiting to see if I’d come after him.

I wasn’t going to fall for that, though. Not this time. I knew his game, and I wasn’t playing it anymore. He’d been taunting me for two days straight now, probably showing off for the other squirrels in the area. Whatever. I wasn’t interested in helping him get a date.

He wiggled his nose and stared at me with those big black eyes. Then he tested putting a paw onto my branch, just to see if I’d react. Then he slunk out onto the branch entirely. Ok, that was a step too far. This branch is mine, and I knew better than to let other animals get that comfortable with me. So I waited until he got closer… He was scooting up the branch, waiting for me to react… just a little more…

I turned and lunged, snapping my beak just short of his whiskers. THAT did the trick. The world’s dumbest squirrel scurried back down the tree and hopped over into the neighboring oak, and I could finally turn my attention back to watching my meadow.

My name is Tobias, and I’m probably the only red-tailed hawk in the world who has these kinds of problems. That’s probably because I’m the only red-tailed hawk with a human brain. A normal red-tailed hawk would have moved to another tree by now. Me? The squirrel wasn’t really bothering me, I guess. If he thought picking on me would help him get a girlfriend, whatever. And if he’s nearby when I get hungry, then whatever. That’s just how life is these days. I stopped worrying about bullies a long time ago.

I used to be a human, I guess. Or something a lot like a human. My father was actually an Andalite who trapped himself as a Human to get away from a war. Sometimes I think that might explain a few things about me. I don’t know. I never got to know him. He was taken away by a being called the Ellimist before I was born, and when he came back, he died. Then it was my turn to fight.

I won’t bore you with the details- by now it’s probably all over the news. Maybe a week ago, the fighting ended when all the Yeerks surrendered, and… Well, you can ask somebody else about what happened. All you really need to know is that I’m done fighting now, and I’m happy.

I am happy.

I mean it.

No, really, I mean it. We finally beat the Yeerks. Against all odds, in spite of everything, a handful of kids with the ability to morph managed to bring down an alien empire. And we only had to sacrifice who knows how many people to do it.

Woo-hoo, lucky us. Now I can retire to a nice little meadow with a bunch of stupid squirrels and fat, tasty voles and not worry about it anymore.

I don’t care what the others tell you, I really am happy. I don’t need to deal with Marco’s whining or Cassie’s pity or Jake’s... I don’t even know what to call it. Messiah complex? No, that’s not quite right either. Bullcrap. That' the word I'm looking for. I don't need Jake's bullcrap right now.

Look, that might seem harsh, but when you arrange things so that other people die and you come out the other side a celebrity, you’re just wrong. It's not that I'm mad about sacrifices- We were all prepared to die. At times, it felt like we were going to die. At times, we actually were dead. And yeah, if you make enough sacrifices, sometimes you win. Predator satiation. Happens all the time in nature. Animals sometimes have lots of babies just so that when a predator comes along and eats them, there are more babies than the predator could possibly eat.

But when the first thing you do afterwards is start making speeches and leave the people you sacrificed out of it, then that's bullcrap. You don't throw other people under the bus. You take the hit yourself so other people don't have to, or you don't fight.

I heard the scrabble of claws over bark. The world's dumbest squirrel was on the move again, but I didn’t care. As long as he wasn’t bothering me-

OUCH!

He bit me! The son of a gun bit me! Okay, I was not dealing with this anymore. And I had the perfect plan for dealing with this squirrel and making sure he never bothered me again. I spread my wings and launched myself into the sky.

The squirrel shot up the tree as soon as I took off. He had decided to hide in the thickest part of the branches, which might have been enough to stop another hawk from seeking revenge. But not me. I flew over the tree once. Twice. Three times, close enough for the leaves to tickle my belly. He sat there and twitched his nose at me each time. Then he started brushing his paws over the top of his head, grooming himself.

He was taunting me.

<Oh, it’s on now,> I said to nobody in particular.

I banked into the wind, fighting for altitude as I looked the tree over. This squirrel was clever. He’d picked the thickest part of the tree to hide in, where all the little twigs and branches would make him harder to get at. But he’d also made a mistake when he ticked me off. And I knew enough about flying to figure this one out. And… There! There was a gap between the branches just above the squirrel! I knew an opening when I saw one. I adjusted my wings and dove.

There was a flash of green as the tree enveloped me. My talons raked forward and clutched at the squirrel. The thing screamed and twisted to try and claw at my legs, but as soon as I shot out the other side of the tree, I spread my wings and let go, dropping him into another tree.

And that would be the last I saw of that particular squirrel. He was fine- the terminal velocity of a squirrel is so low that falls won’t hurt them. But that wasn’t the point. The point was to put the fear of hawk into him, and judging by the way he ran, it was mission accomplished.

I circled back over the meadow, looking for any rival birds of prey that might’ve been watching. I didn’t see any. So I looked down at the meadow itself, and a flash of motion caught my attention on the far side of the meadow. Everything was still for a few seconds, but I knew to have patience. So I watched. I waited.

A blade of grass twitched.

Then another.

A long-legged flash of tan and brown shot across a gap in the grass.

The hawk’s interest was lost immediately. My potential mystery meal was just a grasshopper was jumping from plant to plant. Technically edible, but no self-respecting hawk would eat grasshoppers unless there was nothing else to eat. So I continued looking, taking stock of what I had more than anything.

My meadow is actually pretty nice, when I stop to think about it. Maybe the size of a football field, carved out of the forest around it by a little mountain stream that looked like it would last year-round. It was perfect, really. A lot of smaller mammals and some lizards called this place home, and that meant I wouldn’t be going hungry any time soon.

Actually, I think I even saw a turtle sunbathing out on the log that cuts the stream in half a few days ago. Hmm. Do hawks eat turtles? I mean, I won’t as long as I don’t have to, but if I had to, would it be okay? Just one more question I wish I’d asked before everything changed.

The last hawk to claim the meadow had been a small sharp-shinned hawk, but he flew off as soon as he saw me. Haven’t seen him since. It actually kind of bothers me, to be honest. If he had stuck to one end and I stuck to the other, we could have been just fine. There’s enough mice for everybody. But small hawks and big hawks don’t get along, usually, and I guess I’m one of the bigger ones.

A stiff breeze from the southwest caught my attention again. The storm clouds were getting closer now, and they looked angry. Crap, it was hurricane season, wasn’t it? I never had to worry about that before, I guess. Whenever the weather got bad, I’d spend the night at Rachel’s house… But that’s gone now. Rachel, and her house. Both gone.

Big storms always remind me of her, I guess. It’s kind of silly, but I like storms. I know, I’ve lost it. I’m a bird living in a tree with nothing to protect me and I love thunderstorms. But there’s a beauty there that you just don’t see anywhere else.

When you’re in a storm, all you can think about is how fierce it is. How the wind and rain can batter down anything that resists them, how a brilliant spark of lightning can shatter whatever it touches, and all you can do to just hang on until the blinding squall turns into a gentle rain. But when you can look at the storm from the outside, it’s just… It’s beautiful. There’s a wild, dangerous sense of power to storms, and on some level it just thrills you. And after the storm passes, there’s a peace like nothing else. Whatever damage a storm does, you always know things are going to be okay after. The chill in the air, smell of the rain… If there’s anything I still miss about being human, it’s smells. Hawks don’t have a great sense of smell.

Rachel was like a storm, though. She was… amazing. And she was gone. All I had now was this meadow.

A flash of light shot through the growing thunderclouds. I counted the seconds and ended up somewhere north of a minute before the rumble of thunder finally reached me. So I guessed the lightning was ten, maybe eleven miles away. Close, but not dangerously so. I mean, not unless you lost the cosmic lottery and got hit by arc lightning. But I was pretty sure I had time to figure something out.

I looked back over my meadow and gauged which tree might keep me the driest. There was a particularly fat pine that looked like it had a thick enough canopy, but an owl liked to roost in that tree. Believe it or not, owls and hawks don’t always get along, even though we’re supposed to be awake at different times of the day. So that meant looking for another tree.

Unfortunately, there weren’t any other good trees nearby. They were all too exposed. So I dug my talons into the branch beneath me, and I waited. The wind picked up.

I really should’ve tried flying around, I guess. Get out of the tree and look for something better from the air, even if it meant leaving the meadow unguarded during the storm. But I’d just found this meadow, and as far as I was concerned, I could spend the rest of my life here. So I didn't want to risk another bird sneaking in and taking the meadow while I was distracted.

Do you remember where I mentioned arc lightning? It's pretty rare. A bolt of lightning can erupt from the top of a thundercloud and travel for dozens of miles before it finally hits something. I once saw a tree blow up on a completely cloudless day because of that. But nobody ever thinks it could happen to them. I know I certainly didn't. Not until my feathers started itching and sticking up on end. Not until the air began to taste like metal.

There was a sudden, soundless flash of light.

I don't remember anything after that.


	2. Chapter 2

“Nnnnngh.”

I woke up groaning. I was on the ground, under the tree, which is never a good sign. And I was soaking wet. Great, I must have been blown out of my tree by the storm. Just what I needed.

If there’s one thing that sucks about living in the woods, it’s that you don’t get a warm comfy bed when it’s storming.

As stupid as it is, this isn’t the first time I’ve fallen out of a tree. I admit it- I've fallen out of trees before. When you're a bird, it comes with the territory. You live in trees, sometimes you fall out of them.

But something felt off about it this time. Usually I wake up when I'm falling, and it's not like hitting the ground would have knocked me out. Birds are tougher than that. This time, though, I was already on the ground, and there wasn’t any telling how long I’d been out. Great.

I looked up at the sky. It was dark now, which meant I must have been out long enough for the sun to go down. The scattered remnants of the storm clouds were drifting apart. Stars twinkled through the gaps. I could smell the faintest hints of smoke. I could hear the occasional sputter of wet burning wood.

I started to move, thinking that maybe the storm had started a forest fire. I rolled and tried to get up onto my talons, ignoring that my legs felt all wrong. Too long. I threw my wings out for balance and tried to stand up, but I was too heavy.

No.

I scrambled up onto my feet and stared at my hands. Pale, skinny fingers on pink human hands instead of wings. Long, gangly legs that ended in stupid, useless human feet instead of killer talons. No no no. There was no way. I would have remembered morphing, I was sure of it! How long had I been in morph? An hour? Two hours? There was no way of knowing.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes to focus on demorphing. To focus on the hawk.

The skin on my arms itched. I opened my eyes, expecting to see the pattern of feathers tracing themselves across my skin. Instead, I saw mud sloughing off, revealing bare human skin. I groaned and scraped the mud off before trying again. Close my eyes. Focus on the hawk. Focus on demorphing. Focus on everything I'd miss if I didn't demorph.

My arms remained stubbornly human. My hands clenched into fists. I began shaking.

This wasn't happening. There was no way! Morphing is supposed to be intentional, you have to want to morph for it to happen! So why was I human?!

I gulped and took another deep breath. My heart was starting to hammer. I was panicking. Calm down, I told myself. No one ever got anything done while panicking.

I tried again. I focused. I strained to feel the slightest change, to will even the smallest hint of demorphing to show itself. I focused until I felt light-headed. Until my nerves tingled with adrenaline and my heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest. Eventually, I had to admit that it wasn't working. I wasn’t demorphing.

I was trapped in morph. Again.

As if to confirm my worst fears, the sky brightened as the moon finally showed itself through the dissipating clouds. I blinked up at it. The moon had already climbed high, high up into the sky. Where I was never going to be again.

Four hours. Roughly four hours had passed since the last thing I could remember. And the last thing I could remember was... watching the storm roll in. Worrying about lightning. I turned around to look at the tree, hoping to find some answer there. My heart stopped.

The canopy had been blown completely apart. Splinters of broken limbs were scattered all around me. A jagged gash traced its way down the tree’s trunk, where the sap had flash-vaporized into steam and exploded outwards. A dull orange glow illuminated the now-hollow trunk from within. The faintest crackle of a fire continued to burn somewhere deep inside.

My new home, my tree, was gone.

I fell backwards onto my butt, suddenly feeling too heavy to stand anymore. I'd been... I'd been a hawk for three, almost four years now. It was my life! And I'd been happy that way! I could have lived the rest of my life soaring and hunting! Why was it every time I finally got what I wanted, something had to come along and take it away?!

I wanted to scream. I wanted to fight. I wanted to run. I wanted to do something to change this, to go back to yesterday when I still had the sky. Now, all I had was mud. Mud and some old morphing clothes, soaked through with rain and caked with dirt and grass and bits of bark. I pulled my legs in against my chest. I buried my head in my arms and clutched at my hair. I let out a choked sob.

The reality sank in. I was human now. I had been in the tree when it got hit, so I must have gotten hurt. I must have been hurt so badly that I tried to morph out of my injuries, but passed out before I could demorph. But as hard as I tried, I couldn’t remember it. All I could do was guess at what happened. And wonder why, if I had been hurt that badly, why did I morph human?

I mean, I’d always thought about it. What would being human again be like? Would I have to go back to living with my neglectful uncle or my narcissistic aunt? No, absolutely not. I couldn’t do that. I wouldn’t do that. So what was I supposed to do now? Tell me what you'd do if you'd suddenly lost everything you knew. I don't know! The option to become Human again had always been there, thanks to the Ellimist, but it's been years since I considered it...

It hit me immediately. The Ellimist. That cosmic _bastard_!

I uncurled and unsteadily rose to my feet. “ELLIMIST!” I shouted. “ELLIMIST I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME!! SHOW YOURSELF!!”

But nothing happened. No head-filling voice announced that yes, it was He, The Ellimist, who was responsible for this. No mysterious turquoise void of nothingness enveloped me as he appeared in that grotesque half-bird, half-human body he sometimes used to mock me. Nothing.

I laid back in the mud and just stared at the sky. I didn't have any proof the Ellimist had done this to me. But my gut instinct was that… was that I wanted somebody to blame. I sighed. Lightning strikes happen all the time. And it’s not like life out in the woods wasn’t dangerous. How many times had I come close to dying because some wild animal- not the Yeerks, but just an average run-of-the-mill bobcat or rattlesnake- nearly got the best of me? How stupid would it have been if I had died, anyways? Yeah, the Yeerks spent almost four years trying to kill me, and in the end I get done in by a lightning strike. That’d be a great story.

It reminded me of that story about that World War Two general. Patton, I think. He fought for years to stop the Nazis, and then just a few months after the war ended, he died in a car crash. Seems like a waste, doesn’t it? To do all that, to get through everything, only to just die and never get to see what happens afterwards.

Great, I was turning into Jake. He’s supposed to be the history buff. Not me. I winced and tried to think of something else.

So I focused on the sky. On the dim points of light in the night sky that I could barely see with human eyes. On the patches of clouds that were slowly moving away. In a couple hours, there wouldn’t be any sign the storm had ever been there. And as much as I thought of the sky as home… there wasn’t any sign I had ever been there either. The trees on the edge of the meadow loomed in the darkness all around me, dark and ominous. The grass in the meadow was still, my human eyes too weak to detect any of the twitches I watched for. The tree I had called home slowly burned behind me.

There was nothing here for me, not anymore.


	3. Chapter 3

It took me a couple hours to reach the nearest service road. It would have taken less time, but you try stumbling through the forest at night with no shoes. Ow.

The road was just packed dirt and gravel, but it was an improvement over everything else in the forest right now. All through the night, I had stumbled over rocks and logs and sharp sticks to try and get to a road that I knew led out of the forest, but it was a struggle. There's a lot of things you notice when you're a human, and the fact humans barely know which way North is is one of them. Birds? They just know.

See, humans use visual landmarks for finding directions. Are there mountains? Recognizable buildings? Nope, you're surrounded by trees and they all look the same, especially in the dark. Ok, maybe the Moon will help. Problem is the Moon moves the whole night long, and unless you know how it moves, you can end up walking in circles trying to follow it.

There's a reason the shortest distance is referred to as “as the crow flies”. That's because crows know where North is and can fly over obstacles. Humans, not so much.

But I wasn’t that lost. I’d flown over the forest before. I knew where the service roads were. And sure enough, I eventually found the road and started following it towards town. I’d gotten maybe a half mile before a pair of bright headlights came around a bend in the road and blinded me. I threw an arm up to shield my eyes from the light and half-expected the car to just pass me by, but it was slowing down. Pulling over. Once it had stopped, maybe fifty feet in front of me, I could see the bar of lights that stretched across the top of the car.

Great. The cops. Or, well... who knows, with the war over the cops probably weren’t controlled by the Yeerks anymore. Maybe they'd actually be helpful for once.

A man stepped out of the driver's side of the car with a big wide-brimmed hat in hand. I studied him as best as I could, still half-blinded by his headlights. Heavy green jacket with a gold badge over a tan shirt. Green pants splattered with mud. I let out a sigh of relief. It was just a park ranger out checking the roads. In my experience, park rangers were a lot, lot better than the police. Let me put it this way: the Yeerks had heavily infiltrated the police back during the war, which meant I got shot at by police officers a lot. So I've gotten used to thinking of police as the bad guys, even though it was really the Yeerks. But I have never, ever had a problem with a Park Ranger.

The ranger waved an arm at me. “Hey!” he called. “You okay?”

“Uh, no, not really,” I replied. “Do you know how I can get a ride into town?”

“Uh, I can take you back to the station and you can call for someone there.” The ranger peered at me critically. “Are you with a group?”

“No, it's just me.” I considered telling him who 'just me' was, but years of paranoia took over immediately. “I got lost while hiking, and I don't know where the rest of my group have gone.”

The ranger's face softened as he approached me. “I'm sorry, we'll get you back to the station and see if we can't get you back to them. Uh...” He stopped, probably confused by the fact I looked nothing like a hiker. “Where are your shoes?”

“I lost them,” I lied again.

“Oh.” The ranger frowned. “Well, let me get you a blanket, then.”

The ride back to the station was boring. Driving isn't like flying, not really. Sure, the speed is about the same, but you’re stuck following the road. There’s no freedom in it.

I hadn’t really said much since I got into his car, but the ranger didn’t let that bother him. He told me his name was Steve, and he’d been out checking the roads in case the storm had washed them away. And, judging by the radio station he had playing, he was a fan of classic rock. It was quiet, though. I had trouble picking out most of the words.

Another problem I wouldn’t have if I was still a hawk.

We had been sitting there in relative silence for a good five minutes before Ranger Steve looked over at me again. “So uh... What's your name, kid?”

“Tobias,” I said. I was staring out the window, not really paying attention to where we were going. It was just trees, trees, and more trees, so it's not like there was anything to see.

He pressed on. “You got a last name?”

“Uh...” That was a really good question, actually. I had a last name. I was sure of it. But the guy who I got my last name from wasn't really my dad, so I hadn't really thought about that in years. What was his name, again? Baker? That sounded right. Whatever. It wouldn’t matter that much if it wasn’t right, anyways.

“Baker. Tobias Baker.”

The ranger blinked at me. “Like the Animorph?”

“Uh...” I froze. Crap, people knew about that now, didn't they? So much for the name not mattering. “I guess?” I said stupidly. I squinted at a sign on the side of the road, hoping to get some idea of where we were going. Ugh. How does anybody see anything with these eyes?

The ranger frowned and looked back at the road. He was quiet for a few minutes before he spoke again. “You're not him, are you?”

This was getting weird. I sat up a little higher in my seat, trying to ignore the itching sensation of the mud on my feet flaking off. “No.”

“Uh-huh.” We turned off the dirt road and onto a paved road. “You do know about the Yeerks though, right? Whole thing was a mess. My brother was taken by the Yeerks for a bit, near the end.”

“Look, I really don't want to talk about it,” I snapped. Steve jumped a little, and I turned back towards staring out the window. “I just... I really don't want to talk right now.”

Just a few days ago, all of this would have been a red flag. Knowing who I am? Knowing about the Animorphs and the Yeerks? That sort of thing had Controller written all over it. But now, I was just too exhausted to care. The war was over. Just tell me where to sit, give me some water, and call Cassie for me. That’s all I really wanted him to do.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t start making an exit plan, though.

We arrived at the ranger station a little after two in the morning. It’d gotten colder- too cold for anyone to be wearing just a soaking wet morphing outfit. I was thankful for the blanket Steve had loaned me as he ushered me inside the little log cabin he shared with the other rangers.

At the front desk was another park ranger, a lady with gray hair who looked old enough to be my grandmother. She smiled at me and then at Steve as he came in behind me. I sat down in a chair and pulled the blanket he’d given me a little tighter around me.

“Who’s this?” the ranger at the desk wondered.

“Hey Dianne. He says his name is Tobias Baker,” Steve said quietly before he looked right at me. “Did we get any updates on that BOLO that came down a few days ago?”

The other ranger, Dianne, blinked at me several times before she looked back at Steve.

“You mean for the missing Animorph? Uh…” She looked through some papers on her desk. “Tobias Baker, age 16, height and weight unknown, presumed to be in the form of a red-tailed hawk…”

Oh. I sank down into the chair a little and stared at my feet.

“Son,” Steve said quietly. “You're not _that_ Tobias, are you?”

I sighed. I thought about it for a moment. If this was a Yeerk trap, it wasn’t a very good one... and, well, the Yeerks surrendered a couple weeks ago. Years of being afraid of anyone knowing who I was went up against the need to get someplace safe. And as always, the need wins out. So I nodded.

<I am,> I tried to say in thought-speak. <I was hoping to just retire, but I guess that hasn't worked out.>

Steve and Diane both stared at me for a moment, their eyes even wider than before. They must have heard me after all. Great. I closed my eyes, knowing full well what was about to happen. Here come the questions. The autograph requests. The requests to see what morphing looks like. The demands to know what it was like, being one of _the_ Animorphs, fighting _the_ Yeerks in _the_ war.

“Well...” Diane said quietly. “I can put in a couple calls, but I don't know how long it'll take to reach anyone at this time of night. We have a spare sleeping bag, if you'd like to just stay here until one of them can come to get you.”

“Uh...” I blinked. Ok, not what I was expecting. “Y-Yeah, that'll be good...”

Steve nodded. “Well, Dianne will take care of you from here. I've got to go back out and finish inspecting the roads. Uh... nice to meet you, Tobias.”

“Uh-huh,” I said, suddenly feeling all of the weariness of the night come crashing down on me all at once. I swayed in place for a moment before looking around. “Is it okay if I crash right now? I had a long hike.”

Dianne smiled again and took me into the back to grab the sleeping bag, and Steve went back out to finish his patrol. I made a mental note to try and say thank you more properly when I woke up, and then I laid down to sleep. My last thought that I remember after settling into the sleeping bag was _if these are Yeerks, they’re pretty terrible at it._

I didn't get to dwell on it for very long though. Almost as soon as I laid down, I was out like a light.


	4. Chapter 4

“Sorry,” I said as I fought the urge to yawn in the ranger’s face. “Who did you say was here?”

It was early morning when I’d woke up, or rather, been woken up by the rangers. That meant I hadn’t gotten much sleep, but whatever. I was lousy at sleepovers anyways.

From what I could make out of the ranger’s babbling, however, Dianne had just been about to go out for her patrol when a large and completely misplaced charter bus had pulled up outside. Apparently, whoever was in the bus was here for me, which could have meant a lot of things. It could mean Yeerk holdouts looking for an easy score. It could be the government, looking to pick me up for, I don’t know, isolation in case I had alien germs or something.

Or maybe it was just a bus to take me to a hotel. I don’t know. All I really know is I didn’t get very much sleep. But then again, it’s been years since I had.

Dianne shook her head as she handed me a glass of water. “Some alien. Looks like a human, but the way he talks, there’s no way he’s really a human.”

Oh. Andalites, then. I wondered if it could have been Ax, but he was probably halfway back to his homeworld by now. I mean, he had been stranded on Earth for over three years. He hadn’t seen his parents in all that time, and I knew he wanted to get back to them. And I think he got promoted on top of that, so there’s no telling what kind of job he’s got now. There’s no way he’d stick around.

I took a sip of water. “So do you think I should go with them, or what?”

Dianne gave me a look. “Do you want to run off with a bunch of strangers? I mean, these aren’t the people who were looking for you.”

I fought back another yawn and failed. “Can’t hurt,” I said afterwards. “Worst case scenario, I get recruited for another war.”

That was when Steve came in with a taller, cinnamon-skinned man who had his shirt on backwards and his pants inside-out. I sighed and took another sip of water. Dianne was right, this guy was clearly an Andalite, and he hadn’t done any research at all. I could just imagine Rachel dragging him and the whole landing force off to Macy’s to get them dressed properly.

The Andalite looked around. “Ok, now we have seen the exterior and the interior. I do not wish to see any more of your building. I am here to retrieve Tobias. To-bye-uhsss.”

Dianne frowned. Steve frowned. I nearly choked on my water. Yup, one thing you could always count on- Andalites with mouths do weird things with them. But that little moment was short-lived. The Andalite in morph looked over at me, and right away I knew. The look of recognition and dawning horror on his face? Ax was always better at Human expressions than I was.

“Uh, hi,” I said quietly.

“Tobias.” Ax looked concerned. It was amazing how much I could tell it was him even though he had apparently found a new, older human morph to blend in with. I guess his old human morph didn’t look old enough to be taken seriously.

Ax and I stared at each other for a moment. Him in his new morph, and me still in a battered morphing suit. I guess we were trying to figure out what had changed in the last two weeks. Something had. Ax looked more nervous than I’d ever seen him.

Finally, he spoke up. “How long have you been in morph?”

I winced. “Too long, unfortunately. I got struck by lightning.”

Ax made a strangled noise that attracted the attention of both rangers. “I’m sorry,” he said after a moment. “I don’t know anything about how morphing is affected by-”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said with a forced laugh. “I mean, nothing’s ever easy for me, right? So why would I expect retirement to go easy for me either?”

Ax gave me a look that startled me for a moment. I thought he was almost about to say that the Yeerks were still putting up a fight. But, instead, Ax simply sighed and looked at the park rangers. “Is it alright if I take Tobias with me on my bus?”

Dianne looked alarmed. “Well, we’d prefer it if one of his family members came to pick him-”

“He’s my uncle,” I said quickly.

“Yesss. I am his unk-uhl. His father was my brother.”

Dianne opened her mouth like she was going to say something, then she closed it again and shook her head before she looked at Steve. Steve shrugged. Dianne let out a heavy sigh. “Well, alright. Stay safe. It was nice meeting you Tobias.”

“Uh, same.” I sighed and tried not to look too excited about leaving with Ax. That was easy enough - It’s not like I knew how to make facial expressions anyways. But I still thought Ax looked more than a little nervous. Was it because he knew how much my wings meant to me? Probably. But I suspected there was something else going on too.

When I got onto the bus, I found out what the other thing making Ax nervous might have been. There were other Andalites on the bus. And, judging by their build and the weapons holstered at their waists on large bandoleers, they were military. Warriors. There were only four of them, but they filled up the back of the bus. Then I realized who was driving the bus: A pair of US Army soldiers, both corporals. One was in the driver’s seat, and the other was sitting on the floor behind him.

I looked for a place to sit, but to my surprise all of the seats on the bus had been stripped out to make room for the Andalites. I mean, I guess it made sense. Andalites look kind of like centaurs with the legs of a deer, but they’re also a bit bigger than Humans. Especially when you think about their tails.

The Andalite warriors didn’t say anything to me. But when Ax stepped on the bus, all eyes snapped onto him, and each of the warriors snapped into the same, stiff pose. <Prince Aximili,> one of them began gruffly, <Is this the human you wished to retrieve?>

<Yes, Rolifar.> Ax said simply as he demorphed. <This is Tobias. He is one of the humans who fought the Yeerks.>

<Hmmf. He doesn’t look like much,> whichever Andalite was Rolifar said. Ax rolled his growing stalk-eyes before staring at the Warrior on the left.

<He is also my _shorm_.>

 _Shorm_. That meant something to the Andalites. The four Andalites looked at each other, then each tried to make a small bow in my direction. For the most part, they just bumped into each other. I tried not to laugh as Ax side-eyed me.

<The council was worried about the possibility of Yeerks,> he explained.

“Ah. Right. Hence the bodyguards.”

<Precisely.>

That was when I remembered the pair of extremely bored soldiers at the front of the bus. Both were very heavily armed, and both were watching me with the same look school bus drivers used to.

I thought about it for a moment. <Uh, Ax,> I wondered in thought-speak. <What’s with the soldiers?>

<Evidently,> he said with a huff of annoyance, <your government does not trust Andalites to be able to operate a vehicle as primitive as this one.>

<Somebody got into a car accident, I take it?>

Ax nervously shifted his weight on his hooves. <I had assumed that, given the ease with which I have operated other vehicles before and how relaxed Humans are shown to be when driving on television, it would not be that difficult.>

It was getting harder and harder not to laugh as I sat down on the floor halfway between the Andalites and the Army boys. Ax remained standing, as did all of the Andalites, but they still swayed on their hooves when the bus lurched into motion. I leaned my head back, closed my eyes, and tried to imagine the swaying of the bus was anything like flying.

Sometime later, I opened my eyes again and looked around. We were on the highway now, heading south along the coast. It didn’t look like more than thirty minutes had passed. Ax, surprisingly, was now comfortably laying on the floor next to me, upper torso propped up against the wall.

<You’re awake,> he said quietly.

I stretched a little. He was right, I think, I must have dozed off for a bit. “I wasn’t aware I was asleep.”

<That tends to be how you know you are asleep.>

I stared at Ax after he said this. It was always hard to tell if he was joking or not. When he’s whispering- or the Andalite version of whispering - it’s pretty much impossible. So it was back to thought-speak again.

<Is something wrong?> I wondered.

Ax didn’t answer right away. That meant yes. After a long moment where he looked anywhere but in my direction, he answered me. <I am worried for you.>

I sighed and stared up at the roof of the bus again. <Ah. Well, you know me. I’ll be fine.>

He turned a stalk-eye around. <I know you believe that, but I am aware that Humans require shelter. As you are still underage, I don’t know what options you would have.>

I changed the subject. <What I’d like to know is how you found me.>

<Ah.> Ax looked away again. <Cassie called me as I was boarding the ship to return home. She said that you had been located.>

<Cassie called you? Wait, how did the rangers call her?>

Ax gave me a meaningful look. <When you went missing, she asked your government to keep an eye out for you. She seemed to think you might find a park to live in.>

Ah. That would explain it. Actually, thinking back, I wouldn’t be surprised if she had figured out which parks I was most likely to be in. I mean, she wasn’t wrong.

<So, when she got the call I’d been found…she told you, and you missed your flight home to come see me.>

<She intended to come as well, but the odds of this being a trap were too great for your leaders to support.>

I rolled my eyes. <I don’t have any leaders, Ax.>

<Your country’s leaders,> he insisted with a sudden weariness. <The people who were elected to rule over the geographic territory that you are a citizen of. They are the ones who agreed to sending Andalite warriors to investigate.>

It was the strangest thing, but I recognized his tone immediately. <You’ve had to deal with a lot of stupid humans in the past couple of weeks, haven’t you?>

<Yes,> Ax sighed. <Too many. I am not used… I was not trained for…> He made a gesture with his hands. <I was trained to fight the Yeerks, not argue with these “Russians” over technology that is not theirs. Which is part of why I wanted to go home. I am not cut out for this ambassador work.>

<Oh. I’m sorry.>

<Don’t be.> Ax looked in my direction and smiled. <I would rather be here, helping you.>

<I don’t know. Don’t you think going back to see your parents is important?>

<It is important. But I have already been missing from home for three and a half of your years. My parents can wait a little longer.>

<Pretty sure they’re everybody’s years, Ax.> I stretched a little and yawned before I crossed my arms behind my head. <How long will it take you to catch the next ride home?>

Ax recoiled backwards and blinked quickly. <Well… That is the problem, unfortunately. It could be several weeks before another opportunity for me to go home presents itself.

<Really? Why?>

<Well as you know, energy in Z-Space flows from pockets of high density to pockets of low density, and as these waves travel through Z-space, they affect the velocity of ships traveling through Z-space.>

<That sounds complicated.>

<Yes, it is. And, as any Andalite knows, the geometry of Z-Space shifts over time. At the present moment, there is a heavy flow of energy separating us from the Andalite homeworld, and any ship attempting to leave now would take months to return home. It developed shortly after the flight I missed left. But in a few weeks the geometry is expected to rearrange such that a strong flow of energy will carry ships from Earth to the Andalite homeworld in a more reasonable time.>

<Ah. Bad headwinds, got it. So if you left now…>

<It would take longer to get home than if I waited for conditions to improve.> Ax reclined backwards onto his lower torso and crossed his arms. <We have a saying. Space travel is difficult in the best of times. But when you depend on it, it becomes exceedingly difficult. For instance...>

I let Ax grumble on about space travel for a while. Listening to him complain kept me distracted from my own problems, but I knew I'd have to face them eventually. He was right, where was I going to live? How was I going to get food? There was no way I was going back to my uncle or aunt.

For now, though, I tried to focus on other things. I felt like if I worried right now, if I let myself start panicking, then I’d never stop. So I distracted myself. After Ax had run out of things to say about space travel, I got bored and tried to challenge one of the Andalite Warriors to Rock, Paper, Scissors, which was how I learned Scissors apparently means something very different to an Andalite. Ax had to stop an interplanetary incident from happening right then and there.

All the while, the bus continued to rocket down the highway south. I knew where we were going. Because there was only one place in all of California where the Andalites would go. Where they'd want to go. They were here to arrest the Yeerks and keep us from getting any Yeerk technology, after all. Which meant if we were going to the Andalite camp, then we were going back to the town I used to call home. We were going back to what was left of the Yeerk Pool.


	5. Chapter 5

“Wow that’s big.”

Ax gave me a look with his stalk eyes. <Dome Ships are quite large, yes.>

We were both staring up at the massive Andalite Dome Ship that hovered over the crater that had once been the Yeerk Pool. I’d seen spaceships before: Bug Fighters, Blade Ships, Truck Ships, even the Dome of the Andalite ship that had come to Earth years ago. I’d even seen the Dome Ship briefly, when we were on the Pool Ship. But seeing a spaceship in space is one thing. Seeing it hanging in the sky is another. It seemed impossible. There was no way anything that large could just float there.

If you’ve never seen a Dome Ship, imagine a tree. Only, imagine the top of the tree is a massive glass dome about a third of a mile wide that holds a meadow. Now imagine the trunk is made of glittering silver, with blue lights and nasty-looking weapons pointing out of the side. Imagine the roots are three gigantic engines, each roaring so loudly that even though the ship was miles up, we could still hear the ship all the way on the ground, like the hum of a million cicadas.

All around the Dome Ship, there were dozens of glittering silver craft, each flitting to and fro like birds. Andalite Fighters. Shuttle craft. Larger, more important looking ships that I could only guess carried the War-Princes. Some were accelerating straight up to where the rest of the Andalite fleet waited. Others were coming down from the ships above. Many were racing out towards the horizon, no doubt looking for Yeerks or going to meet some of the more important leaders on Earth.

And somehow, mixed in with all of that, were Human aircraft. Chinooks and Apaches patrolled the airspace directly above the crater itself, almost as if they were trying to keep the Andalites out. A pair of F-16s were circling the crater to the north. And far, far above all of that, even higher than the Dome Ship, a Boeing was leaving contrails in the sky as it headed east. I wanted to laugh. In spite of everything, the airlines were still going. I’ll give Humans one thing: They adapt to new things pretty quickly.

I looked back at the Dome Ship. “Hey Ax? Which Dome Ship is that?”

Ax smiled a little. < _The Elfangor_.>

“Ah.”

_The Elfangor_. A ship named after the Andalite Prince who had given us the ability to morph. The Andalite who was Ax’s older brother. And, through the impossible workings of the Ellimist, the Andalite who was my father. The Andalites had sent it as part of a fleet to exterminate the Yeerks and call the rest of Earth collateral damage. Now, they had to work with the Humans and take care of all the Yeerks that surrendered. I couldn’t imagine many of them were too happy with that.

Then again, once we had gotten back to the crater and Ax could dismiss the warriors that had been assigned to him, he certainly seemed a lot happier.

Ax motioned for me to follow him as we walked into the tent city that had sprung up on the edge of the crater. <This way. Cassie should be somewhere up ahead.>

I followed him through the rows of tents. Thousands of people who had survived the destruction of our home town had returned to pick through the rubble and recover anything they could. Thousands more had been freed by the Yeerks and had nowhere to go. Everywhere I looked, there were aliens. Andalites with clipboards and their own brand of ray gun ran back and forth gathering information. Strange, ape-like creatures called the Gedd mingled with the Human refugees. A Garatron stood painfully still, almost like it had no idea where to go or what to do. A strange, heavily armored crab I’d only seen once or twice before was carrying buckets of water. I didn’t see any Taxxons. I didn’t see any Hork-Bajir. They both had their own arrangements, I guessed. But for everyone else the Yeerk Empire had brought to Earth, there was nothing.

Every so often, I caught snippets of conversation- People were looking for family members. People were worrying about what to do next. People were apologizing to each other. Some had been Controllers. Others didn’t know and blamed themselves. Once or twice, I heard the name Animorphs. Once or twice, I heard people say Jake. Marco. Cassie. No one said Rachel’s name. No one said my name. No one was even talking about the Auxiliaries.

They only cared about the people who were still alive.

I hadn’t realized Ax was pulling away, but he was having a much easier time with the crowd. I ran to catch up to him. “Hey, Ax, wait up!”

Ax half-turned. <I am sorry. Cassie is just up ahead.>

“Wait, really?” And then I heard her. Through the steady roar of the crowd, I could hear her using the same sweet, steady tone she used whenever she had to treat a grumpy mountain lion. We rounded a corner and there she was, patiently explaining something to the grumpiest looking Andalite I have ever seen.

“I understand that you’re busy, but we still need more supplies for the Gedd.”

Ax and I emerged into a small clearing, where Cassie and a large Andalite were standing. Judging by the fact I wasn't hearing anything from the Andalite, he had to be using private thought-speak.

Ax's posture shifted instantly. One minute, he was nervously stepping through a crowd, tail low and eyestalks craned anxiously. The next, he had come to attention and puffed out his chest. <Cassie. Warrior-Commander Greligas. Is there something I can help with?>

Cassie gave Ax a look that said _thank you_. “Yes, _Prince_ Aximili. We need more food for the Gedd, but one of the other Andalites has closed off the Yeerk storerooms that survived the destruction of the pool.”

Greligas, the big Andalite, bristled instantly. <Until those storerooms can be checked for illegal technologies, we cannot permit Humans access to those rooms! Seerow's Kindness is still in effect, no matter what deals you have already made, and we cannot->

Ax stepped forward. <I understand that, Greligas. However, these two Humans and I have fought the Yeerks here for quite some time, and we have never known them to mislabel a shipment of weapons as food or other supplies. Turn over anything that is labeled as food or medical supplies immediately.>

The big Andalite sputtered. <But... Prince Aximili, surely the risk of accidentally arming the Humans is too great to worry about feeding some->

Ax's tail twitched. <Commander Greligas, I can assure you that as a Prince, I am very concerned with upholding the terms of the treaty we have established. One of those terms is that necessary supplies will be provided for the former Controllers until they can be transported to their homeworlds or another place of safety. To comply with the terms of Seerow's Kindness, a cursory inspection may be made _during the handover_ to ensure the supplies match the description of food or medical supplies. However, these supplies will be turned over for the Gedds and other former Controllers immediately. Please carry this order to the others.>

The two Andalites stared at each other. After a tense moment, the big Andalite saluted. <Yes, sir,> he said bitterly. Then he turned and raced off into the tents. As soon as he was gone, Ax deflated and looked even more tired than he had earlier.

Cassie smiled, looking equally tired as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Thanks Ax. I don't know why they're fighting us so much.”

Ax nodded slowly. <They are used to retaining a certain level of control. And as these warriors came here expecting the honor of defeating the Yeerks, they are likely frustrated.>

“They didn't sign up to be babysitters,” I clarified. Cassie blinked and looked at me like she'd just realized I was here. And she smiled again.

“Tobias! I'm sorry, I didn't... Hi. How are you doing?”

“Hi,” I replied. “Considering I'll never get to fly again, I could be worse. Could be panicking.”

Cassie looked alarmed. “You're not... oh, I'm so sorry.” And then she did something I wasn't expecting. She rushed forward and threw her arms around me in a big bear-hug. It took everything I had not to start fighting to fly away as she crushed me.

“Ow! Ow, get off, please. Ow.”

Cassie backed off and gave me a look that was hard to place. “What happened?”

I did the best approximation of a shrug I could. “I don't know. I got struck by lightning and woke up like this.”

“Oh.” Cassie frowned and looked at Ax, then she looked back at me. “Are you alright?”

“You already asked me that. I'm fine. Really.”

Cassie glanced at Ax, and something seemed to pass between them. Maybe he was giving her his opinion. Maybe I was just imagining things. But Cassie looked a lot more determined. “Well, if you're looking for a place to stay, we still have a few extra tents to spare. Human food has been pretty easy to come by, but water has been a little scarce, and-”

“I appreciate the offer, Cassie, but I don't need anybody to take care of me.”

Cassie gave me the same look she gives to the animals that don't want to take their medicine. “This is a place for everybody who's lost their home because of the Yeerks. It's supposed to be temporary. As soon as you figure out where you want to go and what you want to do, you can leave. But until then, there's shelter, food, and water, which are all things you _need_.”

Ax nodded. <If you stayed here, it would give you time to decide without worrying about the essentials.>

What they didn't say was _and we would feel better knowing where you are, too_. They didn't want me feeling guilty over flying away in Washington DC. But I could see it on their faces... And they were right. I wasn't going to get a better deal anywhere else.

I sighed. “Okay. As long as I don't have to share a tent with anyone else. I'm a loud snorer.” They both gave me a look- neither of them had gotten the joke. Hawks don't normally snore.

A couple days went by after I'd picked out a small green tent that some family had donated. I'll say this up front: There was a lot to complain about. But it wasn't terrible. When I was little, I always wanted to go camping, so I just kept telling myself that's what I was doing. I was camping. I was camping in a tent too small to stand up in, with a sleeping bag that smelled funny and some itchy government blankets and a large, loud crowd of people who were all also going camping. The water was always cold and the food was always prepackaged stuff like cereal and pop-tarts, but it wasn't terrible. As long as I had something to do, I didn't freak out too much.

Ax came by a couple times a day to check on me and complain in private. But he never wanted to complain about how things were going with his temporary role as _de facto_ Ambassador to the Humans. As much as he seemed to be overwhelmed, he refused to admit it and insisted he'd grow into it. He was young, he said. All new Princes have a hard time at first, he said. So instead, Ax complained about how he never had time to watch his soap operas and how These Messages were getting too depressing.

Cassie came by less often, because as the unofficial coordinator of everything peace treaty related, she was doing four or five different jobs at once. Then the President came by and put her in charge officially, which gave her a lot more responsibilities all at once but also gave her a lot more resources. I made sure to stay away from that. The last thing I needed was to meet the President, because the only question I'd have for him would be why a bunch of kids had to kill themselves doing his job for him.

So you can imagine my surprise when Jake finally showed up.


	6. Chapter 6

“I really don't think your parents like me.”

<Nonsense. My mother's comment about your nose was meant in good humor.>

A couple of days after I arrived at the camp, Ax and I were “hanging out” at the temporary communications station the Andalites had set up to get orders from their homeworld. Ax had needed to call his parents and let them know he would be staying on Earth a little longer, and at the same time I got to meet them. His parents. Elfangor’s parents. My grandparents... We almost told them who I was, but it turned out they hadn't yet heard the truth about Elfangor’s time on Earth. So as far as I was concerned, they didn't need to know about me. I was just Ax's friend from Earth, not the long-lost grandson they never knew they had.

I honestly had a hard time seeing the humor in the comment. “She said it looked like an insect was nesting on my face.”

Ax shrugged. <My mother has always been direct. There were much worse things she could have said.>

“And that's Andalite humor?”

<That's her humor.>

“Okay. But my nose doesn’t really look like that, does it?”

Ax frowned intensely. <Tobias, are you sure you didn't want them to know?>

Great, he changed the subject. Now I was going to worry about my nose forever. “You said Elfangor's last words were recorded. So they should hear it from him. They're not going to believe me anyways.”

Ax looked thoughtful for a moment. <You're still worried about when Visser One tried to trick us.>

“I wouldn't say worried about him, specifically... I just... do not have the best track record with family.” I sighed and pulled my legs against my chest. I mean, his parents were on another planet over eighty light-years away. The worst they could do was just say no, right? But... I don't know. I've always been alone, except for the Animorphs. And now that was over, so I was alone again. I guess I just didn't want to hear it from someone else.

Ax made a loud, frustrated grunt. <Tobias, it is no accident that my parents have had two sons, both of which have gone on to love and help Humans as much as they could. They would accept you.>

That was when the door to the communications room slid open. A young Andalite, no older than Ax had been when we first met, nervously stepped into the room. He glanced at me briefly before coming to attention and saluting with his tail. <P-Prince Aximili,> he stuttered, <the President of Earth is here to see you.>

Ax and I glanced at each other. President of Earth? Since when did Earth have... oh. _Oh._ That stupid title Marco made up. God, everything was going just fine. Why did Jake need to show up now?

Ax nodded. <I understand. You are dismissed, _aristh_.> The younger Andalite saluted again before he took off and the door closed behind him. Ax and I looked at each other again.

“Did you really used to look like that?” I wondered.

<I still feel like I look like that sometimes,> he muttered before squaring his shoulders. <Do you want to come with me to see Jake, or...>

I got up and headed to the door. “I'd rather have a Yeerk crawl in my ear. I'll be in my tent if you need-” I slid the door open and collided face first with a brick wall. Recoiling, I clutched my face and realized the brick wall was exactly the one person I was trying to avoid.

Jake blinked slowly. “Sorry. Oh... Tobias.” He seemed half-dead on his feet, and he stared through me like he wasn't sure I was really there.

“No duh.” I tasted blood on my lip. I must have collided with him harder than I thought. Jake hadn't moved an inch though, and it looked like I wasn't going to slip past him. I glared at him as best as I could. “What're you doing here?”

“I came to see Ax...” Jake rubbed his face. “Uh, hey guys. What's been going on with you two?”

Ax stepped forward. <We have both been busy, Prince Jake. We have just finished a call with my parents, and tonight I have a meeting with the Queen of England.>

Jake nodded absentmindedly. “The Queen, huh? I hear she's nice.” Then he put on a long-suffering sigh. “I'm sorry. I'll see you around.”

He turned slowly to leave. Most of me was glad to see him go. Part of me wanted to strangle him right then and there for everything he put us through. To make him pay for what he did to Rachel. But some part of me recognized the defeated look in his eyes. The tears he was holding back. He was done. He didn't want to be a burden, he just wanted to crawl into a hole and die. I knew that feeling all too well.

I sighed. I knew I was going to regret this, but some part of me couldn't just let him go like that. So before he could disappear down the hallway, I stopped him. “Jake, what are you doing here?”

Jake looked at me. For most of the time I'd known him, he'd always been bigger than me. First because I'd been scrawny and underfed. Then because I was a bird. But now, even though he was still taller than me, he just looked so small. The general who ordered us to our deaths on a weekly basis was gone, and left behind was a frightened kid who grew up too soon.

Jake half-shrugged. “I just wanted to see how Ax was doing before he left...”

“Ah. And you didn’t know he was supposed to leave two days ago.”

“Well, I… No. I guess not.”

“And you had no idea I was here.”

Slowly, Jake shook his head no. Well, at least no one was going around and blabbing about that then. Yeah. I was really going to regret this. But I lifted an arm and invited him into the room.

Ax stepped forward as soon as Jake returned. <Prince Jake, it is good to see you again.>

“Yeah, hey Ax...” Jake picked a spot on the wall and slid down to the ground against it. All the while, I couldn't take my eyes off of him. There had been times, before the lightning strike, when I thought about what I'd do when I met Jake again. But I always pictured him looking cocky, like a celebrity. Like a beloved war-hero. I'd even imagined he'd have a chestful of medals on a couple of occasions. But now... He looked terrible. He looked like he hadn't slept in the three weeks that passed since the war ended.

Jake looked around the room. “So this is what, an Andalite phone booth?”

<Of a sort,> Ax replied. <As you can imagine, my call with my parents was cut short because we ran out of quarters.>

Jake let out an ugly snort. “Ok, that was funny.”

Ax nodded. <I would be grateful if you didn't tell Marco. He is under the impression that I am still in need of “joke lessons”.>

That took me by surprise. “So you're using these joke lessons to spend more time with Marco then?”

<In a manner of speaking.>

Jake and I glanced at each other. More than once, I'd wondered if Ax was telling me the truth when he said that he hadn't gone home yet because of me. I mean, he had no way of knowing if or when I’d turn up, but… Ax and Marco had always been pretty close. And when Marco’s family had to go on the run from the Yeerks, Marco started spending more time with Ax than he spent with his own parents. But they'd never actually done anything romantic, as far as I know. Ax had a crush on Marco, but Marco didn’t even seem to notice. Or at least, that’s the impression I got whenever I flew by to visit.

But Ax saw it differently, and... well, let's just say I was surprised when he asked me about Human relationships between males. I told him everything I knew, but he wasn't very happy with my answers. As far as I was concerned, if Ax wanted to date Marco, who was I to say no? But Ax was worried that Marco was terrified of what the others might think, and that was why he hadn’t openly returned Ax’s attempts at affection yet.

I didn’t have the heart to tell him maybe Marco wasn’t interested. I don’t know. I never paid much attention to Marco’s love life. But on the other hand, why would anyone ever want to date Marco? Ugh. I had half a mind to tell Ax that there were plenty of better guys if he wanted to date one, but... I let it go.

Jake groaned and dragged his hands down his face. “How has Cassie been doing?”

<She has been exceedingly busy,> Ax replied. <We attempt to take lunch together when we can.>

“Oh. Is she happy, at least?”

<I believe so. She has said she's had more victories negotiating with the Andalites in the past three weeks than she had in the entire war.>

“I see.” Jake stared at the ground like he was lost in thought. Without even looking up, he asked “How are you doing Tobias?”

“Oh, you know,” I said conversationally. “My girlfriend is dead, and I'm stuck as a human, and my tent leaks when it rains, and my neighbors snore, and there's a Gedd who keeps sneaking in and stealing all my blankets. How're your parents doing, Jake?”

Jake barely flinched. “I don't know. They tell me they're fine, but they're not. We’ve been staying with relatives, along with Naomi and her girls… Last night my parents were fighting over me, so I snuck out and haven't gone back yet. They keep... they keep leaving a place for Tom and Rachel at the table.”

I stared at Jake. He looked up at me, face twisted with agony. I wanted to be angry with him, I wanted to be furious, to just... I wanted to hate him so much. But the things I wanted to hate him for were so... unusual. I wanted to hate him for the decisions he made to end the war, not just Rachel but Tom, Erek, the Auxiliaries... I wanted to hate him for how he treated Cassie. I wanted to hate him for how he abandoned his family when I had never had one.

And yet, the war was over in spite of everything because of the decisions he made. Cassie was one of the strongest of us, she would move on. And I... had just abandoned Loren, hadn't I? And I didn't even think twice about not telling Ax's parents who I was...

Right here, in front of me, was a boy broken by the war. He was miserable, a twisted caricature of everything he'd been before, and I don't know if he could ever live with himself. I hated him for the mistakes and sacrifices he made. I loved him for all the times he had been there for me. But most important of all, I realized, I didn't want to be him. Whatever I did with the rest of my life, I never wanted to be like this. I never wanted to be like Jake.


	7. Chapter 7

“Thank you for helping me with this,” I said quietly. Cassie gave me a small smile as she opened the door and we walked into the dimly lit diner. It was a small place near the refugee camp, sandwiched between a bank and a post office in one of the smaller towns on the outskirts of LA. It was where Loren suggested we meet again. Cassie assured me that the food here was amazing, which really meant something. She's not usually into food that much.

It had been maybe two weeks since I saw Jake. I admit, two weeks is a long time to wait, but I wasn't sure how to do this, and it took me way too long to ask for Cassie's help. But after that meeting, every time I thought of Jake, I didn't think of the general ordering us into combat. I thought of the boy who lost everything. And eventually, that thought got me to get my butt in gear.

Marco, unsurprisingly, has remained completely missing from my post-war life. Well, I mean, he's on TV. As far as I can tell, he’s been going to talkshows non-stop since the war ended. But I haven't seen him in person since Rachel's funeral. I know he's around- Ax talks about him in a way that implies they're still communicating. But Ax is getting frustrated, and his Z-space window to return home is coming up. I don't want to tell Ax that Marco is probably terrified of what a relationship with a male alien would do to his new TV celebrity status, but I think that's what is going on.

Luckily for me, when we walked into the diner, the face on the TV wasn’t Marco’s. In fact, I had no idea who it was, but they were evidently acting in some movie about gladiators. I watched it for a few seconds before I realized I had no idea what kind of movies had even come out in the last few months. Not that I’d ever been into most movies, but, you know. I had some catching up to do, if I felt like it.

Cassie nudged me in the arm. “There she is,” she said quietly. I looked. Sitting there in the corner, with a large german shepherd laying at her feet, was Loren. She had both hands wrapped around a cup of coffee and was staring out the window, up at the sky. Where she expected I’d be.

I sighed and trudged over. Part of me was panicking the entire time- What if she didn’t want to talk to me? What if she hated me because I abandoned everyone? What if I said something stupid and blew the whole thing? I clenched my fists to stop the shaking and swallowed. No, I had to do this. I had to at least try. I stopped at the end of the table. Champ looked up at me and started wagging his tail.

“Hello,” I said quietly.

Loren blinked and turned her head. “Oh! Tobias!” She stood up and started to give me a hug, then paused. She wanted to make sure it was okay. I tried my best to smile and gave her a light hug, which she quickly returned.

“Hey,” I replied. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry for… disappearing like that.”

Loren nodded and gave me an understanding smile as she pulled away. “You went through a lot. You needed some time to think, to get away from everything. I understand.”

It almost stung, the way she accepted it so quickly. I wanted to ask _what if I never came back? What if I died in the woods?_ But I didn’t. Loren was my mother, but we barely knew each other. We had only been reunited for a few weeks before the attack on the Pool Ship. And, I admit… I hadn’t done the best job of getting to know her in that time. I always felt like I was imposing. Like I’d be getting in her way. She had her eyesight back. She could go do anything she wanted. What good would having a 16-year-old boy she didn’t even know get dumped on her doorstep do? We were friendly acquaintances at best.

Cassie touched my shoulder. “You should probably sit down before you fall over.”

Wait, what? I looked at Cassie, confused.

“Sorry. You just turned really pale for a second.”

“Oh.” I blinked and held up my arms. “But I’m always pale.”

Cassie laughed before she turned to look at the menu hanging over the counter. “Maybe we should get food then. This place has amazing macaroni and cheese. They put the most amazing brisket in it.”

“I thought you were trying to go vegetarian,” I wondered. Cassie shook her head.

“I was, but the food they sent to the refugee camp wasn’t really helping. Either I’d be eating nothing but lettuce for a while, or I could wait and try again later when I’ve got more variety.”

“Oh.”

The three of us and Champ went up to the front to order some food. Right now, I could go for anything other than slices of the supreme pizzas that the Andalites kept ordering. Apparently, Ax had told the other Andalites about what eating in human morph was like, and ever since it’s been supreme pizzas every day. I was starting to miss actual meat.

But that’s what I get for hanging out with Andalites all the time, I guess.

Anyways, after ordering we ended up returning to the table Loren had picked out earlier. Champ laid down under the table again, right across my feet, and waited quietly. We all quickly dug into our meals- I’d gotten the brisket mac that Cassie suggested. For a few bites, nobody said anything.

Something nudged my leg and I looked down. Champ was now staring up at me from under the table with a wide dog grin plastered on his face. After a few moments, he made a quiet “Aruff!” noise. Loren sighed and looked under the table.

“No Champ, no people food for you.”

Champ looked over at her, then back at me and made the same noise again. “Aruff!”

I couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Hey, you heard the lady. No people food.” As soon as I said that, Champ seemed to contemplate things for a moment, then he went to nudge Cassie. Above the table, I heard Loren sigh with a mix of amusement and exasperation.

“Ever since I got my eyesight back, he’s been getting less and less disciplined,” she said with a small smile. There was a flicker of something across her face, but it was gone before I could see what it was. She took another big bite of her potatoes, and for a moment I thought everything was okay.

Cassie must have seen what I missed, though, because she frowned. “Loren, I wanted to ask… how has that been working out for you? I know it’s probably been a bit weird.”

Loren hesitated before she gave a small laugh. “Well it’s been just a little frustrating, if I’m honest.” Okay, now I knew there was something up. But I still had no idea what to do, and I looked at Cassie. Cassie’s always had better eyes when it comes to people.

Cassie nodded. “How has it been frustrating?”

“Well…” Loren thought about it for a moment. “This whole Yeerks thing has been rough for everybody, so I don’t want to feel like I’m complaining. But I have no idea what to do now.”

“Because you can see again?”

Loren took a long sip of her drink. “Well, yes, but that’s just part of the problem. I mean… I don’t blame you. Any of you. You saved me from the Yeerks, and it’s been amazing being able to see everything again.” She looked between Cassie and me. “But now I don’t know what to do. Everyone else has been getting reunited with their families, moving away, finding new jobs. No one wants to rebuild, they just want to move on. I’ve been staying with a family from the church, but I can’t stay with them forever. And no one wants to take care of a crazy old woman who doesn’t even remember what she learned in high school, let alone how to drive or file paperwork or use a computer. All I can do is talk.”

Suddenly, I understood what we’d done. What I’d done to get Loren away from the Yeerks. I’d given her the ability to morph, which fixed her eyesight. But it didn’t fix the past fifteen or sixteen years where she’d been blind. It didn’t fix everything her amnesia had erased. Now she could see again but didn’t have a home or anywhere to go. My stomach suddenly turned sour, and I pushed my plate away. I’d ruined my mother’s life to stop the Yeerks from doing the same thing.

Cassie grimaced and nodded understandingly. “It’s like everything you know is gone.”

“Yeah, it is.” Loren looked down. “I’ve been worried about Champ. I… He’s helped me through all of this, but he’s a trained seeing-eye dog. I don’t need him anymore, but someone else might. I don’t know what to do. I’ve tried praying, but it doesn’t seem like there’s an answer.”

“I know how you feel,” I said quietly. Cassie and Loren both looked at me, and for a moment I considered keeping my mouth shut. But then Champ nosed my leg again, and the stupidest thing was, I think he knew how I was feeling. I sighed and continued.

“I uh…have spent the last two weeks hanging out with the Andalites instead of actually dealing with my problem. You might have noticed, but I’m not as feathery as I used to be.”

Loren blinked. “Could you tell me what happened?”

So I told her. I told her about how after Rachel’s funeral, I’d considered just flying as far as I could until my wings gave out. How I’d went up the coast to get away from everything and found a nice meadow that seemed like it’d be perfect for me. How I missed Rachel so much my heart felt like it physically hurt some days. About how I’d been struck by lightning. About how I woke up as a human, unable to morph. About how ever since, I’d spent all my time sleeping or bothering Ax or wandering around the camp instead of actually dealing with my problems. I didn’t have a high school diploma, I didn’t have a GED, I didn’t have any experience in anything other than how to survive in the wild and how to kick alien butt. And they were talking about closing down the refugee camp and moving everyone that was left to public housing scattered across the country, and if I went I’d have no way of knowing where I was going or how to talk to my friends again, and there was no way in hell I was ever, ever going to go back to my aunt or uncle. So I was stuck. I had nowhere to go and no plans for the future. By the end of it all, my eyes were stinging with tears. Cassie and Loren were both giving me sympathetic looks. I put my head down on the table and tried not to cry.

Champ stuck his head up from under the table and licked my face several times. Great. Now I wanted to cry and I was covered with dog slobber. I fished for a napkin and wiped my face off a few times while Champ rested his head on my knee.

Loren grabbed one of my hands from across the table and looked me right in the eyes. “I’m so sorry. I know I was never able to be there for you, and I know there’s not a lot I can do now.” She looked down at the table. “I put in an application for housing assistance two weeks ago. If it ever goes through… if they find a place for me, you’ll always be welcome there.”

I nodded slowly. “I-I’d like that,” I choked out. “I just… I don’t know what to do.”

“Neither do I. But we’ll figure it out together.”


	8. Chapter 8

_One Year Later_

I sighed and stared hard at the numbers on the page in front of me. “Two cars are racing on a mile-long drag strip. Car A can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 4.3 seconds, but takes 14.2 seconds to reach 100 miles per hour. Car B can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 4.8 seconds, but takes only 13.7 seconds to reach 100 miles per hour. Assuming the two cars leave the starting line at the same time, which car would cross the finish line first?”

Okay, so the two cars accelerated at different rates, but I knew how far they were going and had two data points for each, so if I graphed the curves and made the X-axis the distance traveled and the Y-axis time, that should give me an idea of which car would win, right? I looked back at the book to see if that’d work… Damn it. The teacher wanted me to use the equations from the last lesson.

I tilted back in my chair and stared at the ceiling. Why, why did I sign up for Calculus? When was I ever going to use this? I’d already defeated an alien invasion. Why couldn’t I be smart like Marco and just turn that into a life of luxury? I bet he never had to worry about word problems.

Then again, it was my own stubborn insistence on doing things ‘the right way’ that got me into this mess. ‘The right way’. Hah. More like ‘the hard way’.

It has been about a year since the Yeerk War ended and I got struck by lightning. A lot of things have definitely changed since then. My old hometown is now a National Memorial, which means they aren’t going to rebuild it. Just as well, a large lake has formed in what used to be the Yeerk Pool, and I don’t think it’d be easy to drain that. The area surrounding the crater that had been scoured clean is starting to get grassy again, and they’re talking about planting a forest to stabilize the soil and preserve the shape of the crater. For some reason.

Loren finally got a house a few days after we met at the diner. And just like she said, she invited me to come live with her. And I did. It’s not a big house, just two bedrooms, but… it feels right. Like this is the first place I’ve ever lived that was actually a home.

Being human wasn’t feeling as awkward anymore either. Having to live with it every day, I was starting to get an appreciation for things I never thought I would. Like waking up in just that perfect position where you never want to move. Or the smell of cooking wafting in from the kitchen. Birds have humans beat when it comes to things like flying and eyesight, but when it comes to creature comforts, humans win every time.

I miss flying though. I miss the feeling of being lifted by thermals high, high into the sky until all the problems and people on the ground were just specks. I miss the sheer exhilaration of a dive, the warmth of a sunbeam on my feathers, the gamble of trying to catch my breakfast every morning. I dreamed about these things almost every night. Sometimes, when I woke up, I could still feel it, just for a few seconds. Then I had to get dressed and go to school and the world would all come crashing back in.

But bacon and eggs in the morning certainly helps take some of the pain away.

Going to school again has been… interesting, I think. Since I came in during the middle of the school year and after being absent for three and a half years, they made me take a test to determine what grade I’d be in. Lucky for me I was helping Rachel with her homework so much, so I ended up making it into high school after all. Actually, I’m pretty sure she’d be proud of me for that.

Everyone at the school knows I was involved with the Yeerk War, but only a few people know I’m _that_ Tobias. Almost nobody knows I used to be one of the Animorphs. They just assume I was a Controller, and you know what? I think I prefer it that way. It means I don’t have to deal with too much drama. I can just focus on my school and my therapy and flying Ax’s old kite around. It’s surprisingly relaxing to just…blend in, you know?

As for Loren- Mom. I’ve started calling her Mom. It just… It feels right. She invited me into her home, she loves me, it’s just… I was missing this. My whole life, I was missing this.

But yeah, she’s doing better too. It was a little rough at first- We didn’t have a lot. The government took its sweet time actually getting any benefits together for the survivors of the Yeerk War, but when it did, we were able to move out of the one-bedroom shack they had put us in and get a bigger house. We’re both collecting a pension now for our part in fighting against the Yeerks, so technically neither of us needs to get a job. But Mom went right back to helping at a crisis center. She said that there were still a lot of people who needed help, now more than ever.

We don’t really talk to her brother or sister. They showed up, of course, once they heard I was still around. Cassie and I wrote a book about morphing, you see. Ended up being a best-seller on the New York Times list. Got me an A in English and Biology class, too. Point is, my aunt and uncle heard I was still around and figured I must be getting money because I wrote a book. I was more than happy to tell my uncle the proceeds were going to charity before I slammed the door in his face.

What? He didn’t look like an endangered animal to me, so why should he get anything?

The other Animorphs are all doing better too, I think. Marco is probably the one who’s had the most exciting time out of all of us. Apparently his family found out about what happened to Nora, which… I’ll be honest, I’m not sure if I can blame Marco or not. I don’t think I can blame Eva either. She knows what it’s like to be a Controller, and when she found out Marco let the Yeerks take his step-mom just because he didn’t like her…yeah. Eva went ballistic. Marco is out on his own now, stirring up trouble on another planet.

Yeah. You read that right. Marco is on the Andalite homeworld now. I’m not sure if he has lost his mind or come to his senses. Maybe both. Probably both.

You see, two months ago Loren, Ax, and I all took a trip to the Andalite homeworld to meet Ax’s parents properly. And Marco found out about it, because a little birdy might have lied and told him that Ax wasn’t coming back to Earth after that. So Marco snuck onto the spaceship and proposed to Ax _on the ship_.

Apparently, _somebody_ finally noticed the world’s most eligible alien bachelor had a crush on him. And _somebody_ , having being recently emancipated and freed from any social expectations because he’s a big TV star, decided he’d give a shot and took Ax out on a date. One thing led to another, they were seen on the cover of a tabloid magazine together, rumors started swirling that Marco and Ax were _dating_ , and the next thing you know, Alabama passed a law banning inter-species marriage. Just a coincidence, I’m sure.

But after a few months, things have gotten pretty serious between them. Since nowhere in the US would recognize a gay wedding (let alone an inter-species gay wedding), Marco decided to just have the wedding on the Andalite homeworld instead. Where the marriage would be recognized by Andalite laws. Unfortunately- or, fortunately, depending on how you look at it- Ax’s parents decided Ax isn’t allowed to get married until Marco has completed some courtship ritual, which takes about a year. But Marco is going ahead with it.

I have to hand it to him: He’s certainly twisted things in his favor. So now our government has to either recognize their upcoming wedding, or they risk starting an interstellar incident with a much, much more powerful planet that we kind of depend on. You can imagine the kind of chaos _that’s_ causing, but Marco thrives on it. Ax, not so much, but he’s happy.

As for Cassie, well, she’s Cassie. She’s won her fight with the Andalites to let certain aliens stay on Earth, and now she’s working with different countries to let the remaining aliens settle in habitats that would be the most comfortable for them. It’s not the best job, but I don’t think she would forgive herself if she stopped before everyone was taken care of. She’s helped the Free Hork-Bajir move to Wyoming, the Taxxon _nothlits_ move to Brazil, the Gedd in Argentina and Chile, and California now has another Yeerk Pool for the surviving members of the Peace Movement. I’m not sure how she got the Andalites to agree to that, but I suspect Ax had something to do with it.

Unfortunately, I don’t think Cassie and Jake are together anymore. I’m not sure what happened, but I don’t think Jake ever quite forgave her for letting Tom get away with the morphing cube. And I don’t think Cassie ever quite forgave Jake for sending Rachel to kill Tom, either. And now, they’re just… They’re so different from who they were before. Cassie has gotten stronger, now that she’s found a fight she can throw herself into without any reservations. And Jake…

Jake is in therapy now. I’m not sure who talked him into it, but I suspect that so many people were telling him that he needed to go to therapy that eventually his parents agreed and decided to make him go. Jake isn’t an emancipated minor, unlike Marco, and even though he’s this great big war-hero who the entire planet loves, he’s still just a 16-year-old. And the State of California didn’t see any point in emancipating him when his biggest complaint about his parents was that they wanted to send him to therapy. Or, actually, he’s a 17-year-old now. Last week was his birthday. Happy birthday, I guess.

And as for me… well, one afternoon I was working on calculus homework when Champ nosed at my leg and whined. Ah, whatever. Calculus can wait. I dropped my pencil and spun my chair to face him.

“What’s that, boy? Little Susie is caught in the well?”

“Arf!”

“The Visser threw Little Susie down the well?”

“ARF!”

I stood up. “Well let’s go get him then!” And just like that, Champ had bolted out of my room and all the way to the back door, where he sat waiting for me to open it with his tail wagging. I smiled and opened the door, and he shot out into the back yard to sniff out whatever it was that had caught his attention.

I stood there on the patio for a few moments and sighed as I watched the sun slowly work its way down to the horizon. Sunset is the most mixed time of day for me. Sunset was probably the best time to go flying, you see. The air begins to get a little colder, but the concrete is still warm, so you can just climb higher and higher on the thermals and watch the sun paint everything in dramatic colors. It was just… I missed it. I really did. The rest of the time, I could distract myself from everything by keeping busy, but at sunset I couldn’t help but remember it.

I don’t know why I did it. I just know that the sunset looked so beautiful that day. The sky, turning shades of pink and orange, looked so inviting. So I took a moment to let myself pretend. I concentrated on the hawk for the first time in a long time, wondering if I would feel anything. Wondering if I could, for the briefest of moments, remember what it felt like to soar through a golden sunset.

The skin on the back of my neck itched. I reached a hand up to scratch, thinking that a mosquito had decided to bite me. But when I went to scratch, I felt the unmistakable texture of feathers brushing over feathers.

I froze immediately. Okay, my imagination wasn't _that_ good. I pulled my hand away from my neck and held it up in front of my face. I already knew what I was going to see. As soon as I opened my eyes, I was going to be staring at a human hand with four long, skinny pink fingers and a stupid thumb.

I opened my eyes.

And I stared at my hand as long hawk primaries slowly shrank back into human fingers. My breath caught in my throat immediately. No way, there was no way this was real. I wasn't morphing, I couldn't morph. I'd tried before, I swear, and it never worked. _Nothlits_ don't just spontaneously start morphing again.

WHY NOT? YOU HAVE BEFORE.

I jumped and looked around, wide-eyed. The clouds overhead had completely stopped moving through the sky. Champ was frozen mid-sniff along the fence line where another dog was barking at him. The slight breeze I'd been enjoying was gone. A cold shiver ran down my spine. “Ellimist.”

HELLO AGAIN, TOBIAS.

The last of the hawk feathers were gone as I looked around again. “What do you want this time? Haven't we done enough?!” I cried.

“Yes, you have.”

I spun to see the Ellimist standing on the porch beside me. He had chosen to appear as an old, elfin man with a long white beard and pointed ears. He seemed impossibly out of place in the middle of Suburbia, but here he was, lounging against the railing as if he'd been invited to a party.

“Then what the hell do you want?” I demanded. “Why are you playing games with me?! The war is over, we won! What else is there?!”

The Ellimist's eyes twinkled mischievously. “There is the matter of payment. A reward. As I recall, you once demanded payment for assisting me.”

“Yeah, and you gave me the ability to morph back.”

“I did.” The Ellimist looked out towards the sunset. “It seemed to me that it would be unfair to reward one of the Animorphs and the others.”

I stared at him. “Uh-huh. And who wished I could morph again?”

“You did, moments and years ago.” The Ellimist turned his gaze back towards me. It was solemn. “But the others deserve no less a reward. Peace. Happiness. That is what the others have always wished for.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You don't believe me. But I assure you, they have been rewarded in different ways. Some may not even recognize what has happened. Others were rewarded in their own time, before their deaths. One was rewarded after her death.”

Another chill went up my spine. “Rachel.”

“Ah, yes.” The Ellimist gazed out towards the sunset again. “She knew she was going to die. I could not save her, of course. The rules of the game prevented me from doing so.”

My stomach turned. A surge of tingling cold and nausea raced through me. Rachel had gotten to make a wish? But she was dead...

“Rachel's greatest desire, above all, was your happiness.” The Ellimist's eyes twinkled. “I regret that you have been grounded for so long, Tobias, but it was necessary. You see, a bird could never experience happiness. Contentment, maybe. But never true happiness. But if you were human again, then perhaps... Ah. But there remained the issue of your payment.”

I blinked tears away from my eyes. “What?”

“Well, you had been given the power to morph. While you grieved, it would have been dangerous to leave you that option. But now that you have begun to heal, I see no reason to keep it from you any longer.” The Ellimist vanished in an instant and the clouds began to move again. I stared where he had stood, fighting back tears as I tried to understand what he had just told me.

And then, as if echoing on the wind, I heard the last thing the Ellimist ever told me: REMEMBER, TOBIAS. TWO HOURS.

I tried to shake off the needles of anxiety that tore through me. I could morph again. I could... I could fly again? Excitement slowly mingled with my anxiety. I looked up at the slow moving clouds overhead, and for the briefest moment I considered throwing myself into the sky, returning to the place I loved. It'd only take a couple of hours and I could go back to my meadow and never have to worry about losing the sky again. But... If the Ellimist was telling the truth, then Rachel wanted something else for me. And that meant I had to finish my homework. I turned around and went back inside.

I could always go flying after I was done.


End file.
